London – oddly, we can’t find any festivals this weekend for you. Sorry about that — but we can tell you that the Kerb streetfood wizards are on today at King’s Cross and West India Quay; see their homepage to find out exactly where they’re heading each day; there are also duckpond markets on Saturday and Sunday in Pinner and Richmond, respectively.

Looking ahead . . .Just a thought but, if you like chocolate (or know someone military who does), Wickedly Welsh has launched two luxury chocolate bars (in association with the RAF Association) to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain on 12 July. The bars come in ‘Tea and Biscuits’ and ‘Rhubarb Crumble & Custard’ flavours; or for a more special gift there is a RAF gift hamper (£35.99). Find the specific “Chocs Away” range HERE. To learn more, visit RAF Association

Hope there’s something in there for you; have a good one!

The Taster

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for further foodie events this month.

At last, picnic weather! The Wind in the Willows (featuring Toad of Toad Hall) is one of our favourite books. It may or may not be coincidence that it also sheds much light on the constituents of what used to be a traditional British diet for genteel folk. It begins on the very first page, where Mole intimidates some officious rabbits by shouting “Onion-sauce!” (just as a more recent joke involved singing about mint sauce and lambs). A few pages more, and Rat invites Mole on a picnic:

[Ratty] reappeared staggering under a fat wicker luncheon-basket.

“Shove that under your feet,” he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.

‘Cold cuts’ certainly used to be far more popular than they are today. In The Taster’s opinion, this seems inextricably linked to the equally declining popularity of Sideboards and Dressers: those large, impressive, old-fashioned pieces of furniture used to store crockery, cutlery and glassware; and which doubled up as surfaces upon which to display buffets, cold collations, or any other form of help-yourself feast.

The main problem with these pieces of furniture is their old-fashioned air and their size. Until very recently, the desire for spacious rooms was tempered by the need to keep warm and cosy, and no-one seemed to mind cramming huge dressers into teeny parlours. But we wonder, now that we have kitchen-diners, open-plan sitting-rooms and so on, whether – coupled with the fashion for shabby-chic – a resurgence in both the Sideboard and the Cold Collation is not due. The Cold Collation is very cook-friendly, since nothing has to be kept warm; most of it can be prepared in advance; and it is an excellent way of presenting thrifty leftovers. It is more or less a lovely indoor picnic, in fact. For a retro feast that is much easier to prepare than it looks, we would suggest this – and it can be adapted for al fresco dining (perhaps without the trifle):

♥ Cold sliced meat (however many types you like. This can include deli meats)♥ One large sliced pork pie♥ One platter of quails’ eggs dipped in celery salt♥ One platter smoked salmon♥ One large sliced quiche♥ Sausage rolls (if you can warm these in the oven just beforehand, they are extra nice)♥ A basket of freshly torn baguette pieces (ditto)♥ Tomato salad, with onion and white wine vinegar♥ Potato salad, with chives and fresh herbs♥ One large trifle♥ One plateful of brandy-snaps stuffed with whipped cream♥ Stilton, Snowdonia ‘Green Thunder’ Cheddar & celery sticks or grapes♥ A basket of whole apples♥ A bowl of fresh strawberries

Hope you’ve enjoyed this. If you like what we write, consider subscribing.

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Found a new funny vid, warning against the perils of TOO MUCH DRINK, for our YouTube channel. Try this:

Have a great Tuesday,

The Taster

PS click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events this month.

Just to let you know, The Taster Magazine is now coming up to its 2015 Summer Issue. This eighth issue marks the end of two years of intense (highly enjoyable) food & publishing activity; and it is never more intense than, as now, when The Final Deadline looms up rather in the manner of, as Douglas Adams might have put it, a brick wall placed across a motorway.

Online publishing, social media and blogs, always allow for the retrospective edit, the second thought, the alarmed retraction. The held headline can, by and large, always be reinstated. But paper-publishing allows no such flexibility; the only method of amendment is to pulp the issue.

Just to thoroughly mix the metaphors, online publishing is like making pasta sauce, where you stir, simmer, adjust, and keep on adjusting all afternoon if you like. Paper publishing is a soufflé: once the eggs are in and baking, that’s it. All you can do is pray.

Anyway. This is somewhat in the nature of an excuse/apology. We’re going to ease off the blogs and other social media for the rest of this week, just while we’re finishing off the issue/brick wall/soufflé. Hopefully it’ll be worth it – with pieces about spices (their history, and how to use them), what billionaires eat on holiday, quite a lot about artichokes, hake, rabbits, raspberries and apricots, and a general emphasis on sun, holidays and picnics. Regarding the spices, we should just add that carrying out the taste tests (fish curry, lamb curry, tempura vegetables, cinnamon biscuits, mmm!) has been an absolute joy and we hope to inspire you to try out and enjoy the home cooking kits we found.

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Since it’s Tomato Week, click on our Tomato Crib sheet:

Have a great week,

The Taster

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events this month.

THERE will always be those who insist that You Can’t Tell Me How To Feed My Kids. Throughout history, protesting voices have been raised against the teaching of science, religion, geography, sex education, and even whether lessons ought to be conducted in a language that pupils could understand, as opposed to French or Latin. If a strong tradition of home cooking had managed to survive the ration-books of World War II, those protests might have a point. But — to be blunt — it didn’t. Instead of the Roast Beef of Old England, the thing that impressed most visitors to British shores, postwar, was the terrible and all-permeating scent of boiled-to-death cabbage.

Perhaps I exaggerate. And as Editor of The Taster, and as a parent, I do try to involve my two younglings in the kitchen. But I will be only too pleased to have some hapless teacher shoulder part of the burden. Like many parents, I juggle work and family and it’s often hard to squeeze everything in. The current rule is Sunday mornings are Cooking Time: I cook Sunday Lunch, and the tinies wash vegetables, peel carrots, make pastry and mix cake ingredients. We talk about fats, carbs, protein and vitamins. Lovely and relaxed, yes? What an aspirational family, eh? No. Sunday mornings — or at least, midday until 2.30pm — used to be a lovely respite. For me. The format was: family banned from the kitchen. Recipe books ranged up. Radio 4. Notebook. Glass of wine for Chef, and away I went. But now? It is a long, increasingly fractious period of instruction, clarification, moderation and emergency interventions. I spend a fair amount of time wondering how a child can, with a mere flick of a wooden spoon, propel almost an entire bowl of cake mix flying out on the kitchen floor. Perhaps he’ll grow up to be a champion javelin-hurler. Then again, perhaps he won’t. Either way, after an hour, I’ve had enough; but is an hour a week sufficient to transmit the art of cooking from one generation to the next?

Being a good cook yourself is no guarantee of success. My own mother was an excellent, ambitious cook who prepared French dishes and four-course meals on an almost daily basis. It was all tremendously impressive, and could not possibly have been achieved with children cluttering up the kitchen. So I learned precisely nothing apart from how to set a table; it wasn’t until I reached my late twenties that an appalled boyfriend insisted I try to follow a recipe, rather than just making a sandwich. (I made a lemon pasta by Nigel Slater. It was life-changing. I spent the next six months reading recipe books as if they were novels, often on the tube and train as I commuted to work.)

Jamie’s Food Revolution Day (click and sign his petition) is an attempt to have proper, compulsory practical cookery taught at school. I hope, very much, the project succeeds. Because if anyone at my children’s school wants to go through the hell of teaching an entire classful of tinies how to bake a cake, they will have nothing from me except my gratitude and support.

Here’s Jamie with his own message:

Find more foodie vids on our YouTube channel. Have a great Friday and weekend,

Catrin T-P
Editor

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events this month.

ENOUGH of politics. 25 years ago Jane Grigson died, sadly aged just 62, after an amazingly successful life in food writing. One indicator of how successful it was is the fact that the French, no less, translated her book on Charcuterie & French Pork Cookery into their own language.

To mark this anniversary, Grub Street have published an excellent new book, The Best of Jane Grigson, and kindly sent us a copy. Billed as “The ultimate compendium of Jane Grigson’s recipes,” The Taster can confirm that it’s a beautifully produced volume. This does make a difference: we’ve often dipped into Penguin’s version of the 1974 classic, Jane Grigson’s English Food, and while it provides all the info you’d expect, the book itself is densely printed in a tiny font that, for us at least, renders the multitude of recipes a little overwhelming. This collection, however, is altogether more spacious and accessible; from the sepia print (kinder on the eyes than black) to the use of italics for Grigson’s background notes and personal reminiscences — it’s all a lot prettier and easier to read. The book is in eight sections, providing recipes and thoughts on food in England; France (with a special section on charcuterie); the Mediterranean; Europe; the Americas; India and the Far East; and Treats And Celebrations. Scattered throughout are delightful mini-essays on topics including Sausages, Picnics, Tomatoes, Seville Oranges and (oh joy) Edible Gifts; and there are a few Scandi recipes hidden in the European section.

Many recipes have names that simply cry out to be given a try, and it is rather fun to track Grigson’s progress across the continents. Try this list, picked more or less at random:

This week is officially Sandwich Week, so here’s a sandwich vid we found for our YouTube channel. Chosen it because the very first sandwich to feature is a British chip butty! Obviously that’s the best, but the rest look pretty good too. Try this:

Have a great week

The Taster

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events in May.

Well, that was exciting. Whether it’s congratulations or commiserations, cups of hot sweet tea all round for the shock!

Just to recap — these are the Conservatives’ promises (and a few of their past achievements). However you voted, it’ll be interesting to see how many of these aims are realised in the next five years.

CONSERVATIVE FOOD POLICIES♦ Champion British farmers and food producers aiming to export.The manifesto emphasises opening up new markets abroad, for example in China and Singapore. The manifesto says: “British farming has a well-deserved and world-wide reputation for its top quality produce . . . As the world’s population continues to grow and tastes and diets develop, we believe that there are phenomenal opportunities to sell British food and drink abroad.”More specifically, they will create a ‘Great British Food Unit’ to promote British foods at home and abroad, and push for country-of-origin labelling in Europe.♦ Help small farmers & suppliers get a fair deal from supermarkets via the new Groceries Code Adjudicator. This might make some food items pricier if supermarkets pass increased costs on to customers. It’s up to individual consumers to decide whether this is a Bad or a Good Thing!♦ Support fisheries.Combat illegal fishing, ban fish discards, and aim to add 100 Marine Protected Zones to the 27 set up in 2013, plus other measures centering around EU rules♦ Reduce bureaucracy.Reduce red tape for farmers and, in relation to food labelling, avoid “burdensome” rules for small producers♦ Reduce childhood obesity. Promote clear food information to allow people to make better food shopping choices

SOME CONSERVATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS during their past stint in power♦Animal welfare.Introduced the Red Tractor labels and “pushed for tough legal action against [EU] countries who have failed to adhere to the phased bans on battery cages for chickens and sow stalls for pigs.”♦Small producers. Introduced the Government Buying Standards under which more of the public monies spent on food and catering go to small and local companies, and promoted the ‘protected’ foods scheme (eg Anglesey sea salt, Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Gloucester Old Spot pigs)

♦Fishing. — with a little help from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, we think — reformed the EU Common Fisheries Policy and set up the UK’s first Marine Protected Zones, covering over 9000km². 10% of UK seas are now protected, and 25% of English inshore waters. According to the manifesto, “we now have a legally binding commitment to fish at sustainable levels. All this means that today, fishing communities from the Highlands to Cornwall have more security and peace of mind”

And now, we’re going to take a breath and brew a cuppa.

Yours,

The Taster

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events in May.

Crunch time is approaching, and we’re not talking about chowing down on a stick of celery.Rather than attempt a conclusion, The Taster offers this purely foodie overview of the five national parties’ plans for the future. In alphabetical order:

CONSERVATIVE♦ Reduce childhood obesity. All three major parties have set out varying plans for this: the Tories’ strategy is to promote clear food information; also aimed at alleviating the burden of obesity-related disease on the NHS♦ Champion British farmers and food producers aiming to export.This to include creating a ‘Great British Food Unit’ to help trademark and promote British foods at home and abroad, and pushing for country-of-origin labelling in Europe. Part of a 25-year plan to work with farmers and producers to “grow more, buy more and sell more British food”♦ Champion their new Groceries Code Adjudicator.This to help farmers receive a fair deal from supermarkets

GREEN♦ Increase taxes on alcohol and unhealthy food to support the NHS♦ Reduce the consumption of meat, dairy and other animal products.Promote alternative diets; and use subsidies & taxes to support pasture- and land-based farming♦ Subsidise organic farming♦ Ensure public monies are spent only on humane & sustainable meat, milk and eggsIe review the Government Buying Standards♦ Ban waste food being sent to landfill. Recycle it instead; ultimately the Greens are aiming for a zero-waste culture♦ Ban antibiotics in meat agriculture♦ Promote farm animal welfareOppose factory farming, ban hen and rabbit cages, ensure dairy cows have access to pasture. Improve welfare on fish farms. Like UKIP (strange bedfellows you find sometimes!), end the export of live animals for slaughter, introduce CCTV in slaughterhouses to ensure best practice, and limit the transport of live animals at home♦ Improve food labelling and traceability ♦ Protect pollinators.Protecting honeybees and others (not a minor concern, in The Taster’s opinion. Is there honey still for tea? IS THERE?)

LABOUR♦ Reduce childhood obesity. Labour’s plan is to limit the amount of sugar, salt and fat in foods marketed to children♦ Cut food bank use.Over five years (from 2009 to 2014, according to the Trussell Trust) the number of people using food banks increased from 41K to 913K.♦ End the ‘chaos’ of the current approach to food policy.Tie more government departments together and increase DEFRA’s presence.♦ Aim to increase food security. Insist that issues such as GM and pesticide use must be viewed dispassionately and according to evidence-based science. (This might involve, for example, opposing claims that GM foods are indigestible, but accepting evidence that they impact upon the environment. *The Farmers’ Union recently claimed the UK is in a downward spiral of non-self-sufficiency, unable to meet 40% of its own food needs.)♦ Take action on high-strength, low-cost alcohol

LIB DEM♦ Reduce childhood obesity. Ban junk food advertising on TV after the 9pm watershed. According to Marketing Weekly, this is the policy that alarmed food marketers the most, out of the three main parties’♦ Introduce a National Food Strategy. To promote healthy, sustainable and affordable food across the nation♦ Extend free school lunches to all primary school children♦ Introduce minimum prices for alcoholic drinksaccording to how many units they contain

UKIP♦ Increase food bank services. Provide 800 staff to help and advise food bank users on additional problems such as debt, addiction, family breakdown or health problems♦ Give a free vote in Parliament on GM foods♦ Push for clearer food labelling.To include information on country-of-origin, slaughter methods and further information on food labels♦ Improve farm animal welfare before slaughter.Ban the export and at-home transport of live animals for slaughter, ban non-stun methods of slaughter and introduce CCTV in slaughterhouses to ensure best practice♦ Support farms. Introduce a Single Farm Payment (presumably to support farmers in the event of withdrawal from the EU) and, in the wake of recent scandals about supermarket squeezes on small dairy suppliers, enable the Competition Commission to ensure dairy farmers get a fair price for milk♦ Support fisheries and protect fish stocks.Introduce a 12-mile limit for UK fishermen only and a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone under UK control; reverse EU drift-net bans in British waters; require foreign trawlers to apply for fishing permits in British waters only when fish stocks have returned to sustainable levels. Also, ban pair trawling (a controversial form of fishing that kills dolphins as well as fish)♦ Remove trade barriers to provide sustainable livelihoods for the world’s poorest people — The Taster isn’t quite sure how this would affect Fairtrade and similar schemes, but would presumably benefit many small producers (and UK buyers) of chocolate, bananas, sugar, coffee, tea etc

That’s it for today. Just heard a great quote on the radio: “Are we all secretly hoping the polls have got it all wrong? Because they all look too certain?”

The Taster doesn’t know. He just says: Good luck, everyone.

Yours exhaustedly,

The Taster

Click on COOK for seasonal cooking ideas, or on our CALENDAR for foodie events in May.